1997 Paris-Roubaix winner still focused on ending career at 'Hell of the North'
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Frederic Guesdon (FDJ) fine-tunes his Paris-Roubaix preparation at Scheldeprijs.(Image credit: Barry Ryan)
Frédéric Guesdon with his trophy after winning the 1997 Paris-Roubaix.(Image credit: AFP)
Frédéric Guesdon (Française des Jeux) looking forward to a shower.(Image credit: Gregor Brown / Cyclingnews)
Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ) has a lot of experience on the cobbles.(Image credit: Barry Ryan)
After crashing heavily and fracturing his hip at the Tour Down Under, Frédéric Guesdon from FDJ-BigMat will return to racing at the Nokere Koerse one-day race in Belgium on March 14. The 40-year-old is still determined to finish his career in style at this year's Paris-Roubaix, which he won in 1997.
"I won't return to competition at Tirreno-Adriatico. It would be too hard, too soon. I don't want to take the place of somebody in the team who is in better form than I am," Guesdon explained to Ouest-France.
"I've been able to do some home trainer and last Sunday, I went for a test ride on the road for a bit more than one hour. I didn't have great sensations."
After Nokere Koerse, the Classics specialist who also counts the 2006 Paris-Tours on his palmarès, will build up his form again by racing the Classic Loire-Atlantique, GP Cholet-Pays de Loire, GP E3, Three Days of the Panneand the Tour of Flanders.
"Of course, if I'm not fit enough, I won't go [to Paris-Roubaix]," he continued. "But today, I hang onto this idea. And I do everything to be there. If I can't do Roubaix, then I could also stop my career one week later in Britanny [his home region], at the Tro Bro Leon, a race that I also like."
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